Jan. 27th, 2010Indian-born
Shiva Vashishat, captain of the USA team at the U19 CWC, say his team
will go home more experienced and all the better for having played
in the tournament – regardless of their results.

Shiva
Vashishat (c) leading his troop off the field during the ICC
Under-19 World Cup Tournament. (Photos courtesy of USACA)

A big part
of the tournament, he believes, is the opportunity to play at a different
level and in different conditions. "It’s been a great experience
so far, playing against test nations and a lot of our guys have never
played at this level," he said.

"We’ve
performed really well in the bowling and the fielding but the only
area we’ve failed in was the batting. But all of the guys
have learnt a lot from this experience."

Vashishat’s
team held a training session at Napier’s Nelson Park on Sunday
morning, waiting for the outcome of the day’s two quarter-final
matches in the Plate Championship, to see which team his players
would come up against on Monday.

He said no matter
which opponent the USA faced, the game plan he intends to execute
would be similar to others he’s played out in this tournament.
"Most of the teams here we’ve played before in global
qualifying matches so we know what they do and how they play.

"Mainly,
our game plan is to bat first, especially on these very good wickets,
which are different from what we have played on. Most of the time
we like to bat first and put up a good score and defend it,"
he said.

The New Zealand
wickets have been a spectacular feature for the USA squad because
at home they normally train and play on matting wickets.

"We don’t
really have turf wickets so it’s a new experience for a lot
of the players. We’ve played on the wickets in Canada and
they were a lot different to the ones here," Vashisat said.

"For many
of the players it’s been hard for them to adjust, it’s
very different – but in the future we hope we can get some
good turf wickets in the USA so we are better prepared next time."

There’s
an interesting mix of cultures in Vashisat’s team, some players
are from Pakistan, Afghanistan and "a lot from India"
as well as American-born players who have taken on cricket as their
first sport, ahead of the traditional football and baseball.

"I’ve
been living in the USA for about nine years now and when I arrived
in the country, cricket wasn’t very popular.

"But as
I grew up, cricket has also grown and it’s going very well
in the USA, especially in the west and the east because that’s
where all of the immigrants are. It’s even getting to the
stage where cricket is being played in high schools so the sport
is growing fast."Courtesy of ICC